The One Thing That Hasn't Changed
by purewanderlust
Summary: It is several years after the war, and things have settled down at Hogwarts. The teachers are finally settling into a more routine schedule. One of the teachers gets an unexpected guest. Written for a contest at The Third Floor Corridor. Oneshot.


**Description: It is several years after the war, and things have settled down at Hogwarts. The teachers are finally settling into a more routine schedule. One of the teachers gets an unexpected guest. Written for a contest at The Third Floor Corridor. Oneshot.**

**Disclaimer:** **I do not own Harry Potter, or the website that this contest is from. No suing! I'm poor!**

The One Thing That Hasn't Changed

Harry Potter sat down at the long, empty table in the teacher's lounge and opened up his folder, starting his grading with a sigh. After the war had ended, with Voldemort finally vanquished, Harry had realized that he didn't want to fight anymore. So instead of becoming an Auror, he had returned to the one place that had ever felt like home to him. Hogwarts. And after three years of teaching the class, Harry felt he could safely say that the Defense Against The Dark Arts post was no longer cursed.

The twenty-two year old professor smiled to himself as he read the first vampire essay. He gave the student full marks. The Headmistress was positively euphoric at Harry's taking over the job. Never before had students been so enthused about the class; fifth and seventh years were getting higher scores on their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s than ever before. Harry truly was a gifted and, certainly, interesting teacher.

He had finished nearly half of the essays when he felt, rather than heard someone else enter the room. At first, he didn't look up, immersed in his grading. But, suddenly a familiar flowery scent registered in his brain and his head jerked up.

Standing at the other end of the room, wearing bright violet robes and smiling sadly was Ginny Weasley. She was more beautiful as he remembered, taller, her wavy red hair pinned neatly back, out of her face. Her dark, almond eyes observed him curiously, waiting for him to say something.

Harry stared at her for a moment, stunned. The last time he had seen her had been years ago, at Bill and Fleur's wedding before he had run off, with Ron and Hermione, to destroy the Horcruxes. He recalled their parting vividly. Judging by the look in her eyes, so did Ginny.

At last Harry found his voice. "Ginny! How are you?" he winced inwardly. That had surely been the wrong thing to say, considering her parents had both been among those who had died during the war, killed by Voldemort himself.

She didn't appear upset, though. She merely came closer, stopping a few feet from him. "I'm fine." she said softly. "You?"

Harry nodded, afraid that his voice would betray him as a liar. Even as satisfied as he was with his life now, Harry couldn't help but constantly come back to all the people whose deaths he had inadvertently caused. His parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, Arthur and Molly… Ginny's voice brought him back to earth with a bump.

"No you aren't." she answered. But before he could say anything more, she continued. "I've missed you."

"I know." he said quietly. "I'm sorry." She knew what he meant. Sorry for leaving, for getting half her family killed, everything.

"Harry, you know what happened with Ron…that wasn't your fault." Ginny told him, again showing a knack for voicing his thoughts. She reached out to touch him, but he recoiled, shaking his head. Her arm dropped limply to her side.

"It is too." he countered. "If I had gotten there in time…but I couldn't even save my best friend…" his voice broke. "That's why I left, Gin. If I had let you come, it might have been you, and I just couldn't take that."

Ginny reached for him again and, again shrunk away, but she continued to reach until her fingertips brushed his cheek. He didn't move and she took a step forward, getting closer. "Ron's death was not your fault." she said firmly, cupping his chin and forcing his sad emerald eyes to meet her blazing russet ones. "Even if you made it in time, he would have tried to fight to protect Hermione. You understand me?" Harry nodded mutely and she released him.

They stood in silence for a long moment, both absorbed in thoughts and memories. They had been through so much, together and apart, since the war began. Lost in reflection, Harry did not look up, until he heard a hearty sniff and his eyes again found Ginny's face.

Tears were streaming from her eyes, and she wore a melancholy smile that tugged down on the corners of her mouth.

"Oh Harry, I was so afraid that you would die." Ginny whispered.

He shook his head, extending his hand towards her face. After a moment's hesitation, he wiped a tear away with his thumb. "Please, Ginny." he begged. "There's no need to cry over me."

"Even though I've known you were alive for a long while, I was terrified to come and see you." she confessed, rubbing at the tears with the back of her hand. "But I thought you might be a completely different person than the boy I loved, and that would almost be worse than you dying.

"You've been through so much. It would be a normal for you to change." she continued. "But here you are, almost the same as you've ever been, the only thing that hasn't completely changed." She was overcome by more tears and Harry pulled her to him and held her tightly, trying vainly to protect her from the world's cruelty.

"There is only one thing that hasn't changed at all." he murmmered into her hair. "I still love you more than life itself. And that's never changing."

They stood there for a long time after that, both of them changed, altered by the harsh realities that had impacted them so deeply. But, Harry thought, love was the _only_ thing that could never be transformed, not by any amount of brutality or heartache. Dumbledore had been right, as usual. Even when they had nothing else, and the world seemed to be crashing down around them, love was always constant.

And it was all they needed.


End file.
